With the world becoming more environmentally conscious, upcycling has turned into a global phenomenon, which is how Handsome Co made its start. It all began with lawyer Billy Potts casually trotting around his ‘hood, and he couldn’t help but noticed all the waste generated by taxi garages. He envisioned a second life to these taxis’ cast offs, so he persuaded architect Joseph Ng to help in creating unique designs with this unlikely material. Joe was excited about this amazing opportunity in using creative ways to solve problems, and soon enough, the two came up with their first line of bags and accessories made with discarded taxi upholstery.
Time flies, and it has been a bit more than a year now since Billy first spotted the taxi seats, with Handsome Co now being a full-fledged multi-disciplinary design firm and consultancy. I have managed to catch Joe for a quick chat on how to turn the mundane to the sublime with an urban Hong Kong twist, which attracted a list of local celebrity followers, including Chet Lam and Jessica Hester Hsuan. Let him explain to us how they balance cultural, social and environmental sustainability through their designs!
What is the concept behind Handsome Co?
The name Handsome Co, which is Chun Kee if you translated it directly from Cantonese, is derived from Billy's Chinese name. Calling your store [Name] Kee is the traditional Hong Kong way of naming a sole proprietors’ shop, just like your neighbourhood shoe cobblers. Since we design our stuff right here in Kowloon, then subsequently manufactured by experienced Hong Kong craftspeople, manufacturers, and NGOs, we want a name that goes in line with our locality. The people that we work with plays an important role in our creation process, since we have learnt a lot about bag constructions from them, and, in some cases, their solutions were much better than ours!
Our mission behind this project is very simple. We want to raise awareness about wastage, and prevent usable taxi parts from going straight to the landfills by using Hong Kong’s unique brand of creativity and turning it into ethical, functional, and culturally meaningful pieces. Having said that, quality is a big deal to us, so when we reclaim the reupholster taxi seats, we inspect them thoroughly to make sure it is in good condition, and then we treat it using industrial disinfectant to ensure that it is clean from inside out. After all, we are talking about something that has touched potentially millions of bums! It was rather difficult to start up, because it was hard to find like-minded individuals who would like to experiment with new ideas, but it has been more than one year since we first began with this project, and since then it has taken us around the world, participated in important fashion events, and met great people throughout the journey.
Tell us more about your products!
We are inspired by materials we see on a daily basis around our hometown’s rich urban landscape, and have now designed watches made of reclaimed taxi seats, Strida bicycles with a taxi theme, as well as furniture and kitchenware. There are a few more exciting projects down the pipeline, such as this upcoming project with tcn:y, a proudly Hong Kong clothing company that makes classic bespoke suits. Watch out this space for further updates!
The best part about our products is that the designs are very interactive, where after our pilot piece was made, it gets tested in the real world, and often our customers would come back with constructive feedback as well as various ways to improve upon our existing designs. In some cases, these improvements have led to an entirely different effect, so we name it after the customer who did the innovation! Our Chet tote was named after Chet Lam, a celebrated local singer/composer, who immediately spotted Billy’s tote when he was at the TV station, and so he subsequently became one of our first customers. Our Joyce book bag, on the other hand, was named after my sister who loves to read. This design was inspirations by the book bags we had as a part of our primary school bag.
[Read: I came from the same school as Joe and Billy, so I know exactly which bag Joe is referring to. His take on the bag is so much classier than the original, which was made of synthetic material, and came in maroon or navy blue. This shiny black reclaimed taxi leather version, with contrasting matte red lining, velcro and stitching, can instantly turn a school nerd into a fashion icon. I am sure kids from our school will be rushing to get one of these for their readings and homework!]
Handsome Co
Website: http://www.handsomeco.com
Their amazing collection is available at the following locations: